CHINA RECASTS ITS MODEL WORKER

It`s official now: China`s ideal worker no longer needs to be as dumb as an ox. He or she can think, be efficient and openly lust after money.

Nor is it necessary to labor exclusively with one`s hands. Professional skills, scientific knowledge and creativity now are esteemed, if not absolutely required.

For several years, Chinese leader Deng Xiaopeng has been recasting the nation`s industrial policy to reduce the emphasis on cookie-cutter-type employees and encourage worker incentive. Now the campaign is being picked up by the press as shown by a recent article in the Chinese-language Workers Daily on the selection of 1,450 Peking residents as ''model workers'' for 1984.

Model workers are chosen annually by leaders of work units as examples to others. The honorary title, which they retain for one year, is usually accompanied by a cash bonus or some other gift, such as a blanket or a vase.

This year, Workers Daily said, the benefits remained the same but the selection process changed.

''The spirit of a willing ox--bearing hard work without complaint--used to be the sole criterion for judging model workers,'' the newspaper said.

''Although hard work still is advocated, efficiency and knowledge are stressed. Mastery of work skills, scientific knowledge and originality are becoming more important as the country advances toward modernization.''

As evidence of the shift in emphasis, the newspaper noted that 36 percent of the model worker laureates for 1984 are teachers or professionals. In the past, almost all were manual laborers.

A Western diplomat said the changes are part of Chinese leaders` ongoing efforts to win greater acceptance for their modernization drive and attract Western industrial development.

The point was underscored a week later, when the People`s Daily newspaper, mouthpiece of the Communist Party, ran a separate article announcing that 1,002 model workers were being awarded special medals for their contribution to China`s modernization.

People`s Daily said ''intellectuals'' received the greatest number of the so-called ''May 1 Labor Medals,'' an award presented annually on International Workers Day (May Day), a national holiday in most socialist countries.

Having thus made it clear what kind of workers now are in favor, the government also spelled out another significant change: The Workers Daily article all but said it was fine for loyal communists to want more money.

''It is a traditional belief that model workers should always retreat from material benefits. If they didn`t, they were considered unqualified,''

the newspaper said.

''That idea is wrong,'' it said. ''Model workers, having made outstanding contributions to the wealth of society, have the right to earn more. Bigger bonuses for model workers can be an incentive for others.''

In other words, China still theoretically is a country where everyone is equal, but now it`s all right for some workers to be more equal.

Skeptics might say that always has been the case, but rarely has it been spelled out so plainly.

A Peking worker who has sat in on the selection process for model workers in the past says few people care about the title, regardless of how much the government promotes it.

''Sometimes people get envious if you are a model worker,'' said the middle-aged man. ''Maybe your colleagues look at you and say you don`t deserve it. Maybe they don`t like you anymore. Maybe it is better to refuse to be a model worker.''

But even those who would shun the acclamation in order to keep their friends still have to worry about pleasing their work units.

Everyone in China is assigned to a work unit, or danwei (pronounced don-way). The danwei often supplies housing, dispenses food coupons, organizes entertainment and decides which workers will be allowed to buy rationed luxury goods, such as refrigerators and bicycles.

Danwei leaders approve marriages and rule on the rare but increasingly frequent divorces of their members. Some even monitor what types of birth control their workers practice.

It is little wonder, then, that most people go out of their way to keep their unit leaders happy.

And it is little wonder that some--probably many--workers feel nothing really has changed when it comes to choosing who will be a model worker.

''Political standing and moral character are still the most important things, no matter what the newspapers write,'' said one Peking worker.

That may sound like sour grapes, coming from someone who never has been named a model worker. But the experiences of an American journalist from the West Coast and his wife tend to support that view.

The couple`s maid, or ayi (pronounced eye-yee), recently was named a model worker for the second consecutive year.

''We were glad for her, but we couldn`t figure it out,'' said the reporter`s wife.